𝐃𝐀𝐃𝐃𝐘 𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐔𝐄𝐒 | jj maybank

𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞

CHAPTER NINE: GIVE ME A BEER!

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"what's this right here?" jj asked, attempting to touch a button on the monitor, only to be slapped away by pope. we collectively decided that testing out the drone was the logical way to go. john b and kie were in the water as we navigated the drone around. i sat back and observed, a beer in my hand.

"don't touch that. i'm trying to work out this thing," pope retorted.

"cmon jj, leave pope to the technicality of this shit," i pushed my sunglasses onto my head.

"god bless geeks, pope. truly, man. what would we do without you to control the drones?" jj took his eyes off of the screen and looked out into the water.

"technically, it's not a drone. it's an rov," he stated.

"shut up, shut up. it's too early for that right now. and it's too early for a beer, elsie," he turned to look at me as he snatched the beer out of my hands.

"asshole," i snickered.

"hey, once we get footage of the wreck, we'll bring it to a lawyer in town and file a formal claim," john b poked his head out of the water.

"it's such bullshit. why do we have to do that?"

"well, there is a maritime salvage law. you can't just go to the ocean floor and scoop a bunch of stuff up," pope explained.

"i know, i know. it's just, lawyers aren't cheap bro," jj threw a pebble into the water.

"we won't need to worry about how much a lawyer costs once we're sitting on gold! 400 mil, that's right baby!" i stood up and tried to lighten the mood.

"elsie, you're missing the point," pope rolled his eyes as i scoffed.

"well, as soon as they see the footage, they'll work for a comp," john b considered.

kie looked at john b who was spitting out all these facts, "how do you know all of that?"

"cause my dad said it, like a million times," he answered simply.

"yeah, that's fair."

"this tether is like, really long. in the wrong weather, it could get pushed around," pope analyzed.

"then we'll go at dead calm," john b attempted to compromise, just as thunder rumbled in the distance.

"at slack tide?" kie climbed out of the water.

"so now, we just gotta wait for the right weather. and today is not that day," we all looked up at the sky, that was giving signs a storm approaching.

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"you kids these groceries over to figure eight," pope's dad said, handing us bags to load into the boat. i decided to accompany jj and pope on the shenanigans for the simple fact that i had nowhere better to be. "get straight back here when you're done. no fishin'. i promised delivery by this afternoon. and elsie, please keep these boys in check," he added as i nodded understandingly.

"yes, sir," i gave a friendly smile, taking the last of the groceries out of heyward's hands.

"it doesn't even look like the storm hit there," pope said as we all looked over at the rich homes on figure eight.

"that's because they got generators, bro. get used to it. and then they say the juice will be out all summer at the cut," jj, who was sitting across from me, responded. we didn't want to be all romantic in front of pope because we didn't want to make our best friend uncomfortable. besides, he was the one keeping our thing a secret.